1. Outward sign of inward grace Session Three
Sacraments
Outward sign of inward grace
Session Three

2. Today’s session Outward sign of inward grace...recap
Daily rituals which achieve what they signify
Sacraments as signs of the Church
Baptism

3. Sources
CCC – n1077 and n1213
SC n29

4. Sacramental Principle – Divine Perspective
Everything is, in principle, capable of embodying and communicating the divine.
God is at once everywhere and all powerful.
There is no finite instrument that God cannot put to use.

5. Sacramental Principle – Human Perspective
human beings have nothing else apart from finite instruments to express our own response to God's self-communication.
the divine reaches us through the finite
we reach the divine through the finite.
This is the sacramental encounter
for Christians the ultimate sacramental encounter with God is Jesus Christ.

6. Relationships
Primarily God relates at a communal level not a private and individual one
Never simply transactions between the divine and this person
clearly that as well – but not primarily or exclusively
God touches all of humankind, and the human community as a whole responds to its experience of the divine through a sacramental mode.

7. Sacramental Definition
Widest Sense:
Any finite reality through which the divine is perceived to be disclosed and communicated, and through which our human response to the divine assumes some measure of shape, form and structure.

8. Ecclesiological events
Finite realities
through which God is communicated to the Church and through which the Church responds to God's self-communication.
Sacraments are directly ecclesiological in character.
Christ is mediated through the Church.
The Church is the sign and instrument of God’s Reign
Christian moral life is Christian existence, i.e., our way of being Church.

9. Actions of Christ through the Church
The Church is “The Sacrament of Universal Salvation” (LG 48)
the fundamental sacrament of God's promise and deliverance of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ.
The sacraments are acts of God
acts of Christ
Immediately acts of the Church

10. Manifestions of the Church
Sacraments are expressions of the nature and mission of the Church.
The sacraments are not simply actions which the Church performs, or means by which the Church makes grace available. They are moments when the Church becomes Church, manifesting itself as Church to itself and to others.
Sacraments do not only relate participants to God they also relate them immediately to the Church.
The lasting effect of the sacrament is one of relationship to the Church.

11. Baptism
Baptism allowed Christians to break with their life histories up to that point.
The newly baptised felt that their lives were starting all over again.
In baptism they surrendered their old identity and discovered a new one in Jesus Christ.

12. Baptism – a new birth A new self – defined by God
A liberation – from everything else but God
An immersion into God’s redeeming love
So a totally changed person and...
A new family of brothers and sisters

13. New Testament origins
Within Judaism there were initiatory rites associated with water. When gentiles became Jews part of the ceremony was a water bath (and circumcision for males)
John’s baptism emphasised repentance to prepare for the coming of the Messiah – and he saw it as temporary

14. Jesus’ baptism
By water and the Holy Spirit
Mt 3:11 and Lk 3:16

15. Transition from Judaism to Christianity
Pre-paschal baptisms - see Jn 3:22 and 4: 1-4
An apparent rift between disciples of Jesus and those of John
Pentecost: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Acts 2: 1-39

16. Early initiatory experience
Water baptism remained as well as baptism in the Spirit
Normal initiation followed a sequence...
Gospel proclaimed; conversion; water bath; post-baptismal teaching; fellowship in the Spirit; breaking of bread; prayers
Acts 2:42

17. Early practice of baptism
Didache ; Justin’s Apology; Tertullian;
Hippolytus d c Apostolic Tradition –
Baptism 3 years preparation; evangelisation, moral formation, sponsorship; gradual inclusion in the liturgical life of the community
Ceremony: fasting, prayer, scrutiny, oil of exorcism, profession of faith, water baptism by immersion, imposition of hands, anointing by bishop

18. Baptismal ceremony Preparation: severe fasting, intense prayer
Examination by the Bishop
Oil of exorcism, profession of faith,
water baptism by immersion, imposition of hands,
anointing by Bishop

19. Theology of Baptism
Is a later development in Paul and 1 John and 1 Peter
Col 2:12; Eph 2:1-6; Phil 3:10-11
Baptism incorporates us into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus
1 Cor 12:12-14, 27
And into the Body of Christ

20. Theology cont Acts 2:38 - a baptism of repentance
Acts 8:37 – expresses belief in the Good News
Eph 5:26 – baptism purifies
Rom 6:11 - we become dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus

21. And it requires of us
Rom 6: we must lead a different kind of life, ‘not under law but under grace’
2 Cor 4: the Christ life is a living out of the Paschal mystery that our baptism celebrates

22. Council of Trent 1547 - doctrine
Baptism is valid whoever administers it
Necessary for salvation
Imposes obligations to lead a holy life
Its grace can be lost though serious sin
It can never be repeated – indelible
Can be administered to infants and children

23. Vatican 2 LG – Baptism incorporates us into the Church
Orients us to the worship of God
Gives us rebirth as sons and daughters of God (LG 11)
Is our initiation into the Paschal mystery (n7)

24. Vatican 2
Calls us to witness as a priestly , apostolic and holy people (Decree on the Laity n11,2,3)
Baptism is a bond of unity and a source of potentially full unity among the divided Christian communities (Decree on Ecumenism n 22)
Reintroduced the Catechumenate - RCIA

25. Ceremony today Ideally Holy Saturday night
Instruction by the celebrant
A litany
Blessing of the water
Renunciation of satan
Anointing with the oil of catechumens profession of faith

26. Ceremony cont Profession of faith Pouring of the water
Invocation of the Trinity [name] I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Anointing
Clothing with white garment
Presentation of lighted candle

27. Baptism Uses symbols of oil, water, light, white garment
Links with the story of the Pasch, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
Engages us in themes of rebirth, new life, forgiveness of sin, worship of God, the mission of the Church

28. Baptism and the Church
Is also about the Church which shows itself as a community, the Body of Christ rather than an institution
Identified with the suffering and death of Christ so that it can point the way to Christ’s glory
A forgiving community in need of forgiveness
“ a holy people”

29. A sharing in God The glorious goodness of God shines forth in Jesus -
“It is through him that God’s greatest and most precious promises have become available to human beings, making it possible for you to escape the inevitable disintegration that lust produces in the world and to share in God’s essential nature” 2 Pet 1:4

30. Baptism Makes us free to seek God
Enables us to become partakers of the divine nature
To become fully human
To share in the life of God

31. What is the challenge today?
Infant baptism?
A meaningful ceremony ?